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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

"In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital,"

Ecuador's Correa breezes to 2nd re-election

Quito, Feb 18 A landslide second re-election secured, President
Rafael Correa immediately vowed to deepen the "citizen's revolution"
that has lifted tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans out of poverty as he
expanded the welfarestate."In this revolution the citizens are
in charge, not capital," the leftist US-trained economist said after
winning 56.9 per cent of the vote yesterday against 23.8 per cent for
his closest challenger, longtime banker Guillermo Lasso.With 57 per
cent of the vote counted, former President Lucio Gutierrez finished
third with 6 per cent. The remainder was divided among five other
candidates. Lasso conceded defeat late yesterday.The fiery-tongued
Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of
14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven
presidents in the decade before him.With the help of oil prices that
have hovered around USD 100 a barrel, he has raised lower-class living
standards and widened the welfare state with region-leading social
spending.The 48-year-old Correa dedicated his victory to his cancer-stricken friend President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who some analysts have suggested he could succeed as the standard-bearer of Latin America's left."We are only here to serve you. Nothing for us.Everything
for you," Correa told cheering supporters from the balcony of the
Carondelet presidential palace yesterday shortly after polls closed.Yet
Correa has also drawn wide rebuke for intolerance of dissent and some
analysts have questioned how sustainable his economic policies are. The
number of people working for the government has burgeoned from 16,000 to
90,000 during Correa's current term if office, Ecuador's
nongovernmental Observatory of Fiscal Policy reported in December.Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank,
called Correa's ramping up of social spending "simply applying the
standard recipe for many populist governments in the region." While it
succeeds in buildingpolitical support in the short term, he said, it is not clear whether it is sustainable.And
while Correa has shown himself to be the "undisputed rhetorical leader
of Latin America's left" and should now see his standing enhanced there
Shifter said Correa's consolidation of power have damaged Ecuador's
"already precarious institutions" and he lacks the clout, the ambitionand the coffers to build a coalition that could curtailUS power in the region.